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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24153025">A Swirlie Hunt by Mushroom Light</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/beautifulterriblequeen/pseuds/beautifulterriblequeen'>beautifulterriblequeen</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ethari hides swirlies, Gen, Rayla loves puzzles, Runaan doesn't need sleep apparently, Soft Family Bonding, just good cute moonfam stuff, just good elf dads, rayla's first night in the tree house, why do i keep writing about Rayla keeping Runaan awake</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:42:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,622</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24153025</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/beautifulterriblequeen/pseuds/beautifulterriblequeen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Rayla's first night in the tree house, and she doesn't want to be alone in her new room.</p><p>Just some soft moonfam goodness to soothe the soul.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ethari &amp; Rayla &amp; Runaan (The Dragon Prince), Ethari/Runaan (The Dragon Prince), Rayla &amp; Runaan (The Dragon Prince)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>131</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Swirlie Hunt by Mushroom Light</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Runaan’s eyes flickered open at the unfamiliar noise in his bedroom. Tiny scuffing sounds crossed the floor in the dark. Sharp instincts flared bright in his mind, but he felt Ethari’s arm heavy across his shoulders and tucked them away again.</p><p>It was only Rayla, after all. Her first night in the tree house.</p><p>Well, that wasn’t true. She’d stayed over plenty of nights when Lain and Tiadrin were away on missions. Ethari had made her a cozy nest in a high corner of the family room, and she’d happily clambered up there every night to sleep (and guard the tree house, she said). But tonight was different. Tonight, Rayla <em>lived</em> here.</p><p>Her light weight barely moved the bed as she clambered up with soft, light movements. Runaan raised his head and pushed up onto one elbow so she could spot him in the dark by his glowing hair, pulled back into a thick night braid. Ethari’s arm slipped off and landed on the blankets with a soft thump, but the craftsman didn’t wake.</p><p>In the dimness, everyone’s hair glowed softly, and gentle light from soft blue mushroom clusters along the walls added a cool hue to the bedroom. Rayla hugged herself, and her eyes flickered to Ethari, who remained blissfully asleep, before landing on Runaan’s face again. “Can I sleep in here?” she whispered.</p><p>Runaan blinked sleepily and drew in a deep breath, shifting into parent mode. He still wasn’t sure he was doing it right, even after all this time, and now far more was at stake. But Rayla was a precious little girl, and he loved her with all that he had. He took a moment to soften his first instinct again. She was young and scared, and he couldn’t fault her for not adapting to several big changes in her life in one day.</p><p>“Rayla, you have your own room here now. If you don’t sleep in it, then all of Ethari’s little gifts will go unappreciated.”</p><p>Rayla’s little brows pulled tight in confusion. “Little gifts? I didn’t see any gifts.”</p><p>Runaan smiled. Usually this was Ethari’s bailiwick, giving someone a tour of the precious crafts he’d created. But Runaan wanted him to sleep well tonight—they’d all had a rough day, beginning with Lain and Tiadrin leaving at dawn. Runaan had spent the rest of the day acclimating Rayla to the new house customs and rules, while Ethari had plied her with silly fun, jokes, and food to ease her into her new living situation. And they’d both made sure that Rayla knew that her parents loved her very much and had only accepted the huge honor of being chosen for the Dragonguard because they knew Rayla would be safe and loved and protected in the Silvergrove, where Runaan and Ethari could take care of her in their absence.</p><p>The day’s mental and emotional effort had worn harder on Ethari, and Runaan was determined not to wake him for Rayla’s distress if he could help it. Besides, Runaan would need plenty of practice with handling an elfling’s feelings since he was one of only two parents now. He managed a clever smile despite his sleepiness and murmured, “No gifts? Are you certain? Perhaps we should look again, hmm?”</p><p>Rayla’s little face shifted into wary curiosity. Runaan could practically see the gears turning in her mind. Ethari loved to be clever with his gift-giving, and even at the tender age of four, Rayla knew that about him. “Are they hidden? Do I get a hint?”</p><p>In reply, Runaan tipped his horns toward the doorway and smiled, offering to shepherd her back to her brand new room. She grinned and hopped lightly onto the floor, padding toward the door. Behind her, Runaan pressed a soft kiss to Ethari’s cheek. “Back soon,” he murmured. He swept a light teal robe over his shoulders and tied it as he caught up with Rayla at the doorway. She offered her hand unprompted, and he took it, feeling that odd but pleasant rush of receiving a child’s full trust before it had even been asked for.</p><p>
  <em>Moon and shadow, she’s so tiny and soft. With Lain and Tiadrin both away now, it’s down to me to protect her. She’s been here for less than a full day and I’m already amending my list of favorite people. It’s those big purple eyes, I’m certain of it.</em>
</p><p>He squeezed her hand and led her up the curving stairs to the new room Ethari had carved just for her. They stood in the doorway for a moment and looked around. Only the faintest moonlight glow shone in through the round window in the far wall. “You’d better turn on all the glow lights so we can see the details better,” he prompted.</p><p>“Okay. Umm, how many are there?”</p><p>Runaan tapped a mushroom high on the door frame. Light from the smooth-capped fungus lit the doorway area, but not much further. “There are eight lights. Each one you turn on will let you see the next one more clearly. Do you think you can find them all before I walk all the way around the room in the opposite direction from you?”</p><p>Rayla’s face lit up. “Yeah!” She took a flying jump at the mushroom Runaan had just tapped, turning it back off. “One!” With mild exasperation, he turned it right back on again. She bounded atop a small table and poked a large, upside down mushroom in a swirly metal holder. “Two!”</p><p>With a jolt, Runaan realized he needed to start walking if he was going to provide her with any incentive at all. He glided the other way around the room, hearing Rayla’s eager “Three!” and “Four!” as she found the mushrooms growing out of the sides of the bookshelf. Ethari was surely being optimistic about Rayla loving books as much as he did. She was having far too much fun doing a tumbling roll across the bookshelf top to stop and read any of its tomes.</p><p>Her bed was adorned with moons and bramblethorns, and its entire headboard was a swirlie-covered Moon rune set right into the wall. Runaan hopped across her bed in one bound as she poked the next mushroom, near the window, and they crossed paths. He heard her giggling under her breath as she realized she was further ahead than he was in circling the room. He walked backward to observe her progress, surprised at how easily she’d taken to this little game.</p><p>
  <em>Of course. My little tests are familiar to her. The room, not so much.</em>
</p><p>“Six under the table, and… seven, eight on the bedposts! I win!” Rayla flopped happily onto her bed to catch her breath.</p><p>Runaan gracefully abandoned his losing circuit and stood at the foot of the bed with his hands tucked behind his back. “Well done, Rayla. Now you can look for the things Ethari’s left in here for you.”</p><p>She propped herself up on her elbows. “Like what? I didn’t see any little jeweled animals or anything.”</p><p>Runaan felt his cheeks warm just a bit. “Ethari gives all kinds of gifts. And I know he put plenty of them in here. Little secrets that you’ll finally see one day and wonder if it’s new or if it was always there.”</p><p>Rayla grinned. “You mean swirlies.”</p><p>Runaan smiled along with her. “Yes, those too.”</p><p>“I love his swirlies.” Rayla flopped back and tucked her hands under her head—a very Lain pose that tugged at Runaan’s heart. “I love seeing them on signs and jewelry and stuff in the village. ‘Ethari was here.’ And now… Hey.” She pointed straight up. “Is that a swirlie? Come see! It’s a shadow swirlie!”</p><p>Runaan frowned for a moment—he was way too big to fit on Rayla’s bed with her. But he perched one leg on the side of the mattress and looked up with her at the concave dome Ethari had carved over the bed, hollowing out the tree overhead. With the glow mushrooms lit, it was easy to see that Ethari had added some metallic swirls within and below the dome, turned just so that the shadows they cast up into the dome’s curve landed like perfect swirlies and curlicues, forming a circular rune pattern that could be read in either direction.</p><p>Rayla gasped in excitement. “It’s so cool! Did you know that was there?”</p><p>Runaan had, but he hadn’t seen the final effect before. Ethari was truly going all out for Rayla, giving her such intricate and pretty room decorations built right into the architecture. But he was Ethari. Of <em>course</em> he went all out—these swirlies weren’t just decorative. They carried a message. “Ethari wants you to know that you’ll always be safe here. Those swirlie shadows are actually Old High Moonshadow runes for protection, loyalty, and love. You probably never noticed, but he put them on your baby rattle, too. Your father was particularly fond of that rattle.”</p><p>Lain had seen the old runes on Ethari’s gift for a brand new elfling and teared up. Ethari had meant the rattle as a sign of his and Runaan’s intentions to be as big a part of Rayla’s life as Lain and Tiadrin would allow. And Lain had read it in an instant and been moved to tears.</p><p>Runaan couldn’t fault him for that. He was a bit softer than usual with a newborn, after all. Tiadrin had swiped it from his fingers and said, “That’s not for you, Lain.” Then she smiled proudly at him, at all of them, and added, “It’s for all of us. Together.” She’d shaken the rattle in celebration, and Rayla had immediately demanded it with a wordless yell. Tiadrin handed it to her, booped her nose, and looked back at Runaan and Ethari. “I do hope you know what you’ve signed up for.”</p><p><em>We signed up for whatever it takes</em>, Runaan thought, as he and Rayla gazed upward at Ethari’s swirly runeshadow mandala in the carved-out ceiling dome.</p><p>“Wait.” Rayla’s voice carried that urgency one only hears after midnight. “If he did all that on my ceiling, did he hide other swirlies in here?” She threw her legs over the edge of the little bed and trotted to the bookshelf. Her fingers felt along the edges of the bookcase, which was a little taller than she was, and it wasn’t long before she found one of Ethari’s carvings. “What does this one do?”</p><p>“That’s up to you,” Runaan teased. Some of Ethari’s creations were simply meant to be admired, but many had a second or third function as well.</p><p>Rayla seemed to remember that, too. She ran her fingers around a big swirlie in the wood, and it lit with cool blue light at her touch, casting a soft glow across her cheeks. She glanced at Runaan in excitement. “A light enchantment! Is there more?”</p><p>Runaan chuckled. “Undoubtedly. It’s very possible that he added one or two more than he told me about, too, just so you’d be the only person to discover them.”</p><p>Rayla’s purple eyes went wide with excitement. “I have to look everywhere! Will you help me? Please, Runaan? Because… you’re tall and I can’t reach everywhere yet.” She smiled winningly.</p><p>Such clever charm from one so young could only be Ethari’s influence, which Runaan was powerless to resist. It didn’t matter that he’d be missing a couple of hours of sleep, if it helped Rayla settle in and feel like she belonged. Because she did belong now.</p><p><em>It’s good for me, too</em>, Runaan decided. “Yes. Let’s look.”</p><p>So they scoured the desk, the bed’s frame and moon-decorated headboard, all the art that hung on her walls, and even pulled the books from the bookshelf to look behind them. They found a dozen secret swirlies that sparked various enchantments when Rayla touched them, and her smile grew brighter with each one. Rayla hopped right into the round window sill, entirely fearless of the long drop when she pushed open the glass to check outside the window. And she found one, just outside the window’s outer frame, that created an owl’s hoot when she touched it.</p><p>“Ah. So <em>that’s</em> what he was doing, sitting in your window that day,” Runaan mused. “He refused to tell me, but he said it would be a hoot when you figured it out. I didn’t realize he was being so literal. Now he’s going to tease us both about it.”</p><p>For some reason, his honest confession sent Rayla into gales of laughter. He steadied her in the window sill in case she toppled out and laughed herself to death. He couldn’t help but smile down at her fondly as she shook with giggles. Rayla was the personification of the life he worked to protect, and he could feel the image settling deep into his soul, of her sitting in her window sill at three in the morning, laughing uproariously over her new dads and their soft silliness. <em>Oh, I’m definitely carrying this moment with me forever.</em></p><p>As her laughter finally wound down, a massive yawn split her face, even though she tried to fight it. “I think that’s enough hunting for tonight, little shadow. Ethari’s secrets will keep.” Runaan gently scooped her up and carried her back to her bed, and she snuggled in sleepy contentment against her crescent pillow as he tucked her in with deft fingers. “Good night, Rayla. Welcome home.”</p><p>He rose and began to turn off all the mushroom lights, feeling a pull toward his own nice warm bed and Ethari’s welcoming arms, but Rayla made a tiny noise as he moved toward the door. He turned back toward her inquiringly.</p><p>She scrubbed at one sleepy eye and snuggled against her pillow again. “G’night, Runaan. Love you.”</p><p>He smiled softly and turned to leave again, but he only made it one more step before a wave of softness overwhelmed him. He looked back at her tiny slumbering form. <em>I love you, too.</em></p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Ethari woke early the next morning and found Runaan missing. Worried that something untoward had happened in the night, he dressed in a hurry, dragged his fingers through his hair to smooth it a bit, and padded barefoot in search of his husband and their new charge, trying to fight the bubble of concern that bobbed around inside his chest. It turned out he needn’t have worried at all.</p><p>He found them asleep in Rayla’s brand new room. The whole place looked like it had been ever so precisely ransacked, with books in stacks on the floor instead of on shelves, the window wide open, and half of his enchantments softly pinging against his arcanum.</p><p>Rayla lay curled on her side under her covers, sound asleep and utterly content. Runaan sat beside her on the floor, dozing against the wall in perfect repose. His thick night braid snaked over his shoulder and twined through Rayla’s little hands, and she held it tightly and smiled in her sleep.</p><p>Ethari pressed his fingers to his lips to keep from making a cute sound so loudly that it woke them. He drank in the sight of them having bonded over the search for all the little swirlies he’d left Rayla in her new room, and his heart nearly burst from softness and joy. He pressed one hand against his chest to still his gleefully thudding heart and tiptoed back out, easing on down to the kitchen.</p><p>This first perfect morning together called for moonberry scones, and he intended to have them ready when his family woke up. As he reached into the pantry for ingredients, he thought, <em>Don’t worry, Lain, Tiadrin. Things are going to be alright.</em></p>
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